Since July 15, Const. Jason Wierenga has been one of the latest officers to join the Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment.

“I was excited to get here. I grew up in a small town and I love the small town atmosphere. Being able to get to know people personally is an awesome part of it,” said Wierenga, adding his previous post was in Sundre, Alta. where he was stationed for five years.

“I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of investigations in Sundre and that helps you develop well as a police officer for all the posts you have after that,” he added.

Wierenga has been an RCMP officer for the past five years. Before that, he was employed as a school teacher for nearly a decade.

“I used to be a teacher for 10 years,” said Wierenga, but during his teaching stint he was seeking a different way to work with people and use the teaching abilities he honed, although he noted he really enjoyed teaching students over the years.

“There were a lot of positive sides to that. I enjoyed spending time with the kids but I think I was looking for just a bit more variety in the kind of work that I was doing,” said the constable, adding it was his experience as a teacher that has served as inspiration to, it is hoped, eventually specialize in crimes against children. “That’s kind of an interest I have.”

Making the transition from growing up in northern British Columbia to living in southern Alberta has been an interesting change of pace, to say the least, for the constable.

“One of the neat things is the Chinooks that come through. Where I was, snow fell typically at the end of October and it stayed until the end of April. Here, to lose the snow for periods of time, is really interesting and it breaks up the monotony of winter, I find,” said Wierenga.

“That’s probably the biggest change.”

When not serving the community of Taber with policing duties, Wierenga spends time with his family, who were also looking forward to the move to Taber over this past summer.

“I have a family and kids so right now my activities are basically being involved with the kids in their sports and things like that. That’s the main thing that takes up my time.”

Wierenga also said he tends to go into work on his days off to maintain his file load and to work on self-improvement, something he takes very seriously, as well as helping others in need.

“I guess the main reason I went into policing was to help the victims, that’s my primary interest,” he added.